


Dungeons and Dragons and Dad

by TheGreatGame



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: AU where Bob survived but Hopper died, Dungeons and Dragons, Gen, i really needed Bob alive and well and wonderful, this takes place shortly before season 3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-09
Updated: 2019-07-09
Packaged: 2020-06-25 12:01:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,341
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19745338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheGreatGame/pseuds/TheGreatGame
Summary: Bob Newby is alive and well, but worried when he finds out that Will's friends have been ditching his Dungeons and Dragons campaign. What better way to cheer up his stepson than to play with him?





	Dungeons and Dragons and Dad

_5_

_13_

_7_

_5_

_1_

For the first time in five minutes, Will stopped rolling his twenty-sided die. The Wheeler’s basement was silent now, except for the occasional creak of a floorboard from upstairs. The silence used to be unsettling to Will; half a year ago, a good game of Dungeons and Dragons would get all of them howling, whether they were cheering on great rolls or roaring out the dialogue of dragons. Some nights, their campaign would get so loud, Mike’s mom would scream down at them that his little sister couldn’t get to sleep, prompting Mike to scream back that they weren’t being that loud, which led Dustin to screaming that Mike’s mom had a point and maybe they should quiet down, and….

… and Will would give anything to be overwhelmed by that noise again.

The natural 1 lay on the untouched board, next to player pieces that used to matter more to Mike and Lucas than life itself. Or at least more than Doritos or New Coke. _What the hell, Lucas,_ Will thought, _seriously?_

Or girlfriends.

Will put his head in his hands, and tried to convince himself he wasn’t going to cry.

“Knock, knock!”

Will cried out, startling the incredibly unthreatening marshmallow of a man who was walking down the stairs.

Bob Newby let out a yelp of his own.

“Jeez!” Bob took a deep breath, his hand over his heart. “Oof. You scared me half to death, kiddo.”

“I…” Will cleared his throat, ignoring the way it had cracked. He quickly brushed a tear from the corner of his eye. “I just wasn’t expecting you.”

“I know you don’t usually finish till 8, but…” Bob grinned as he shook a black velvet bag that was embroidered with silver stars. “You left your lucky dice!”

“Oh. Yeah.” 

Lucky dice. Really, only Bob called them that. He had given them to Will as a gift a while back, and took Will’s admiration of the swirling galaxy colors as infinite praise. Will didn’t mind, of course. They were admittedly the nicest looking dice he owned, and the bag was a nice touch. However, he couldn’t call dice lucky if they hadn’t rolled any miraculous saves or attacks, and it wasn’t like there had been many opportunities to test them out.

“I, uh,” Will lifted the d20, “usually use Mike’s.”

“Oh.” Bob looked down at his feet, then up again, grinning. “That’s ok. Good memories, huh?”

The silence returned, bringing with it the faint noises of dishes being washed in the kitchen.

Bob turned, as if just noticing that he and Will were alone, as if it wasn’t so painfully obvious. “Where are your friends?”

Will sniffed and looked down at the board. It was easier to say this when he wasn’t making eye contact with people. He couldn’t see the disappointment in their faces.

“They’re out with Max and El. Girlfriends come before DnD, I guess.”

“Ah.” Bob smiled, and was probably about to talk about the power of love or something equally sappy when he noticed another sad clue. “Then why’d you set up the board if they cancelled?”

“They, um… didn’t cancel. Not really.”

Bob cocked his head. As much as he deserved the title “Bob the Brain”, he could sometimes be so clueless.

“They ditched me.”

“What?” 

The utter shock in Bob’s voice finally made Will look up. 

“What? What’s the big deal?”

“They ditched you?”

“This isn’t the first time.”

Another gasp from Bob almost made Will start laughing. He had never gotten this reaction before. Usually, adults tried to break it to him gently that all good things come to an end, or that love made men do crazy things, or that he should really find another hobby at this age. But not Bob. Somehow, the most passive, gentle man in all of Hawkins could surprise him.

“But those kids are crazy about you. You’re best friends.”

Will winced. Ever since the Mind Flayer had terrorized Hawkins almost a year ago, Bob made it a habit to remark on what good friends Will had. They had really impressed him, which was sweet at first. Bob couldn’t believe how strong those kids had been, not only saving Will from the Upside-Down before Bob had come into the picture, but sticking by Will and saving him from the Mind Flayer and those horrible dog-like monsters that had killed too many good people. It was common for Bob to end his reminiscing with a small prayer to Jim Hopper, or a silent nod to him if Joyce was around. 

Bob wasn’t stupid. He had seen the ways Hopper would look at Joyce from time to time. Hell, Bob knew that if he hadn’t been around, there might even have been something between them. But he still respected and downright cared for the former sheriff of Hawkins, and would have done so even if Hopper hadn’t saved his life almost a year ago, pushing him out of the way of a demodog who would’ve done God-knows-what to him. It probably would have ripped his guts out like it did to Hopper.

This made Bob’s admiration of the kids’ loyalty grow all the more, and made it so sad now. Bob knew things were straining between Will and his pals, but he had so much good-natured faith that it almost made Will sick.

“I guess,” said Will, “girlfriends come before best friends too.”

Will put his head in his hands again, not wanting to see what reaction of pity he would get this time.

Bob opened his mouth for a moment before letting it close. He tapped his fingers on his belly, swaying awkwardly in the empty space. 

Finally, he sat down across from Will and set the bag of dice on the table. 

Bob paused in his examination of the board. There were three player pieces set up, since Dustin had just gone off to summer camp, but a few unused pieces lay haphazardly in the nearly-empty box for the board. They looked custom-made. Bob supposed Mike, or a relative of his, had bought an unusual set of them from some toy store or something. Whatever the reason, the shortest piece intrigued him like nothing else. 

“What if…”

Will looked up to see Bob turning the piece over in his hands, a bemused looking halfling who looked like he couldn’t beat a goblin, let alone the evil lord of the swamps of Kuzatan. 

“… you met a wandering…” Bob glanced at Will's open book of rules and chose the first word he saw. “… cleric?”

“A cleric?” said Will.

“Yeah. A cleric named…” Bob put his piece down on the board. “Robert Newbold.”

Will snickered. “Robert Newbold the halfling?”

“Half-what?”

“Your piece is a halfling. They’re not very strong. Not like dwarves or elves.”

“Well…” Bob turned his piece around and grinned at something only he could see. “I think he looks very nice.”

Will leaned over, then nodded. “He does. Does he worship a god?”

Bob’s eyebrows raised. This was already calling for more creativity than he had expected.

“He, um, worships…. Joyce.” His smile almost reached his eyes. “Joyce, the goddess of wisdom.”

Will’s heart still wasn’t used to the sweetness Bob Newby could provide, which might have been why his reply to that was,

“You can’t play Dungeons and Dragons with two people, actually.”

“Oh.” Bob’s smile fell. 

“I-I mean,” Will stuttered, “that’s against the rules. But if it’s just us, then maybe we could,” he shrugged, “make our own rules?”

“Hey,” said Bob, “you’re the dragon master.”

“…. Dungeon. It’s dungeon master.”

“Oh.” Bob nodded. “So, if you’re the dungeon master, then I’m the dragon master?”

“You have a lot to learn.” 

“Agreed.”

Then Bob pulled a face so soft and bright that Will just had to start laughing. Both of them chuckled as Will took out a blank character sheet and started showing Bob how to fill it out. Then they started rolling for stats, and Will’s dice earned their lucky status for the first time.


End file.
